JLB,
I believe your response to my post needs a response. As pointed out in the opening post: “I think everyone recognizes that there are two Covenants, the Old and the New.” This is a true statement but you do not recognize it a true.
You said: "The law was added until the Seed should come.The Abrahamic Covenant was before the law ["old Covenant"] and is what we are grafted into as believers in Jesus Christ."
While the Abrahamic Covenant is undoubtedly extremely important, it does not enter into any discussion of “Old Covenant (or Old Testament)” and “New Covenant (or New Testament”) in Scripture. Therefore to introduce it in this discussion is to simply confuse the issue. (The words “covenant” and “testament” are used interchangeably in Scripture).
The only occurrence of the term “Old Testament” is found in 2 Corinthians 3:14 which says “But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of THE OLD TESTAMENT; which vail is done away in Christ”. The context (2 Cor. 3:1-18) makes it very clear that Paul is here contrasting the Old Testament (and in particular the Torah or the Law of Moses) with the New Testament (verse 6 “Who also hath made us able ministers of THE NEW TESTAMENT"). The epistle to the Hebrews develops this contrast in even more detail, and once again compares the Law of Moses to the New Covenant in Christ. There is no reference to the Abrahamic Covenant in either 2 Corinthians or the book of Hebrews.
You also said: "The New Covenant is not a "different Covenant" but rather a "fresh Covenant" that includes the Holy Spirit for all who believe."
This statement is quite incorrect (although the gift of the Holy Spirit is true), since Scripture clearly reveals that the Old Covenant was merely types and shadows, but the New Covenant is the reality and the ultimate covenant. Notice what it says in Hebrews 8:4,5,7,8-10,13):
4For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:
5Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
6But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
7For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
8For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
9Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
13In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
The New Covenant is new not only because it was ratified with the blood of Christ, but because God’s Law was written in the hearts of believers rather than on tables of stone.
You said "No one can disconnect the law and commandments of God, that Abraham was commended for obeying, from the New Testament."
What if God Himself has set aside the Old Covenant with all its laws and commandments, and replaced it with the New Covenant and the Law of Christ? Are you going to argue with Him? (Hebrews 10:1,19-22).
1For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
19Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
21And having an high priest over the house of God;
22Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
I believe your response to my post needs a response. As pointed out in the opening post: “I think everyone recognizes that there are two Covenants, the Old and the New.” This is a true statement but you do not recognize it a true.
You said: "The law was added until the Seed should come.The Abrahamic Covenant was before the law ["old Covenant"] and is what we are grafted into as believers in Jesus Christ."
While the Abrahamic Covenant is undoubtedly extremely important, it does not enter into any discussion of “Old Covenant (or Old Testament)” and “New Covenant (or New Testament”) in Scripture. Therefore to introduce it in this discussion is to simply confuse the issue. (The words “covenant” and “testament” are used interchangeably in Scripture).
The only occurrence of the term “Old Testament” is found in 2 Corinthians 3:14 which says “But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of THE OLD TESTAMENT; which vail is done away in Christ”. The context (2 Cor. 3:1-18) makes it very clear that Paul is here contrasting the Old Testament (and in particular the Torah or the Law of Moses) with the New Testament (verse 6 “Who also hath made us able ministers of THE NEW TESTAMENT"). The epistle to the Hebrews develops this contrast in even more detail, and once again compares the Law of Moses to the New Covenant in Christ. There is no reference to the Abrahamic Covenant in either 2 Corinthians or the book of Hebrews.
You also said: "The New Covenant is not a "different Covenant" but rather a "fresh Covenant" that includes the Holy Spirit for all who believe."
This statement is quite incorrect (although the gift of the Holy Spirit is true), since Scripture clearly reveals that the Old Covenant was merely types and shadows, but the New Covenant is the reality and the ultimate covenant. Notice what it says in Hebrews 8:4,5,7,8-10,13):
4For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:
5Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
6But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
7For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
8For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
9Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
13In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
The New Covenant is new not only because it was ratified with the blood of Christ, but because God’s Law was written in the hearts of believers rather than on tables of stone.
You said "No one can disconnect the law and commandments of God, that Abraham was commended for obeying, from the New Testament."
What if God Himself has set aside the Old Covenant with all its laws and commandments, and replaced it with the New Covenant and the Law of Christ? Are you going to argue with Him? (Hebrews 10:1,19-22).
1For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
19Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
21And having an high priest over the house of God;
22Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.